The reconstruction of Casa Vicens’ lost artificial waterfall

The Fundació Agbar has chosen to celebrate International Museum Day by announcing its plans to create a full-scale reproduction of the artificial waterfall that once graced the garden of Casa Vicens as part of a major renovation of the Museu Agbar de les Aigües located in Cornellà de Llobregat.

The garden of Casa Vicens once featured a curtain waterfall nested in a freestanding parabolic arch that helped cool the gallery of the house during the warmest months of the year as well as a natural spring situated closer to the street.

The waterfall was no longer functioning when this photograph was taken in the 1940s shortly before the structure was destroyed to make way for a modern apartment building.

Francesc Ribera Colomer. Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona

The prime mover behind this project is Daniel Giralt-Miracle, art historian, commissioner of the International Gaudí Year celebrated in 2002, member of the Reial Acadèmia de Ciències y Arte de Barcelona, and consultant to the Fundació Agbar on the reconstruction of Gaudí’s waterfall in the garden of the Museu Agbar de les Aigües in Cornellà de Llobregat.

Thanks to the existence of period photographs and original plans signed by Gaudí, it will be possible to create a full-scale reproduction of the waterfall arch using the same types of materials and techniques employed when the original was built on the grounds of Casa Vicens.

“I think Gaudí would be delighted,” remarked Giralt-Miracle during an interview conducted as part of activities organized at the water museum for International Museum Day.